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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister stated on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until November 9th, noting that the transportation of employees and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the situation so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing protection worries.

It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in 2021.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.